1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a method of manufacturing a ferrite sintered body, and in particular relates to a method of manufacturing a ferrite sintered body which is suitable for use as an inductor such as a laminated chip inductor.
2. Description of the Related Art
Conventionally, various kinds of ferrite have been used as materials for manufacturing inductors such as a magnetic core material and a laminated chip inductor.
In the case of a laminated chip inductor, generally, ferrite layers and electrically conductive material patterns are laminated successively, a coil consisting of the electrically conductive material patterns laminated and combined together are formed between the ferrite layers so as to obtain a laminated body. Then, the laminated body is sintered so as to be formed into a sintered body. Further, external terminals are formed on the sintered body in a manner such that they are connected to the electrically conductive material patterns, thereby producing the desired product. In general, as a ferrite material for forming the laminated chip inductor, there have been in use a series of Ni--Cu--Zn ferrite materials and a series of Ni--Zn ferrite materials. As an electrically conductive material, Ag has been in practical use since it has a large electric conductivity.
With the development of a trend in which electronic devices are made compact in size but have improved performances and increased functions, there has been a demand that the ferrite parts for use in forming the electronic devices should also be made compact in size and be made to have further improved performance.
In order to meet the above requirements, a commonly used method in a case of an inductor material for use in forming a laminated chip inductor, for example, is for a glass to be added to the ferrite raw material, and various experiments have been conducted in order to improve various performances. However, the situation is still that it is difficult to sufficiently improve some ferrite properties such as .mu.i (initial magnetic permeability) and Q (inverse of dielectric loss tan .delta.).